The DP World Tour’s season wraps up this week in the same part of the world where it kicked off the new year. Coming full circle, the top 50 players will tee it up at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai for the DP World Tour Championship.
The top of the standings in the season-long race features names and faces most would not recognize, but that’s the fun in it — there’s something different on the line for everyone. For 10 players in particular, playing privileges on the PGA Tour in 2026 are up for grabs.
As it stands, 11 of the top 16 in the Race to Dubai are non-PGA Tour members. The other five are Rory McIlroy (No. 1 despite playing just 10 DP World Tour events in 2025), Tyrrell Hatton, Robert MacIntyre, Aaron Rai and Tommy Fleetwood. The latter three have been recent winners and contenders, quickly boosting their positions.
While anyone can win the DP World Tour Championship, only the top three in the Race to Dubai — McIlroy, Marco Penge and Hatton — can don the year-long crown by week’s end. McIlroy has almost an 800-point edge over Penge with 2,000 points being awarded to the winner and 57.60 points to the player who finishes last in the 50-man field. As for Hatton, he will need a prayer and then some coming from north of 1,700 points off the pace.
2025 Race to Dubai standings
RankingPlayerPoints
1
Rory McIlroy
4640
2
Marco Penge
3873
3
Tyrrell Hatton
2919
Meanwhile, at the onset of the week, the PGA Tour bubble boy is Jordan Smith of England, who is more than 100 points clear of Martin Couvra of France. That margin can easily be overcome, as we saw just last year with Paul Waring going from obscurity to PGA Tour member thanks to his first win in six years in the penultimate event, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, over Hatton.
Waring entered that week as No. 229 in the Official World Golf Rankings and played his way onto the PGA Tour, where the 40-year-old looked much like a player ranked outside the top 200 in the world. Despite the season he put together, Waring’s rise illustrates how all it takes is one good tournament to change one’s fortunes.
For the McIlroys and Fleetwoods of the world, there are no concerns over where they will be playing next season, but rather what they could still possibly accomplish this season. It has been a year filled with historic implications, cleared hurdles and even some down spells for both men, yet it’s a campaign that still has some juice to be squeezed.
McIlroy has a chance to claim yet another Race to Dubai crown, and it may be financially irresponsible to bet against him. (McIlroy is also a 4-1 favorite to win the DP World Tour Championship, per DraftKings.) He has a total of six Race to Dubai titles under his belt, including an active streak of three, which pulled him alongside Seve Ballesteros for the second most in DP World Tour history. Collin Montgomerie leads the way with eight.
RankPlayerRace to Dubai wins
1
Colin Montgomerie
8
T2
Seve Ballesteros
6
T2
Rory McIlroy
6
4
Peter Oosterhuis
4
T5
Lee Westwood
3
T5
Sandy Lyle
3
T5
Bernard Hunt
3
T5
Bobby Locke
3
Meanwhile, Fleetwood may not have a chance to claim that title, but he can nevertheless finish his season with a bang while claiming a slice of history. Only McIlroy and Henrik Stenson have won the Race to Dubai and the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup in the same year, but McIlroy did so without winning the DP World Tour Championship. Fleetwood is the second favorite behind McIlroy for the DP World Tour Championship at 11/2.
Fleetwood could technically be the second player, along with Stenson, to win the DP World Tour Championship and the Tour Championship in the same season. Although not the climax of a season-long race like his PGA Tour triumph, a win this week would cap off what has been a transformational season for the lovable Englishman.
McIlroy’s memorable year
Rory’s 2025 has felt like a stock index setting a record year with all signings pointing to it finishing at a new high. And like a stock, when digging into the week-to-week data more closely, it is hardly a surprise to see ups and downs, heaters and cold spells.
It started with an intense focus as McIlroy dusted the field at Pebble Beach and baptized J.J. Spaun at The Players Championship, leading to the longest day in the history of golf — Sunday at the Masters — where he lost and won the green jacket what seemed like a million times over.
With the Masters and career grand slam finally in his pocket, McIlroy was seen as being a player with a